As the Wimbledon tennis championships get underway, the real drama isn’t on the court but in the air. After the players’ lawn and an open-air restaurant were dive-bombed by pigeons, officials sent marksmen to take ’em out. The tournament employs two hawks for pigeon-scaring, “and by and large they do the job,” says a Wimbledon spokesperson. “But unfortunately there were one or two areas where the hawks didn’t deter the pigeons, so it was deemed necessary to take a harder approach.” Folks at PETA are hopping mad, calling the shooting “cruel and illegal behavior.” But apparently, desperate times call for desperate measures; said one marksman, “Wimbledon are worried that the birds will be crapping on everybody’s heads.”
